Sunday, August 28, 2011

Montenegro

Bay of Kotor. Entering Montenegro for a moment gave
me a small reminder of the former east block feeling. On the border,
when it was our turn, the customs officer waved us back without
giving us a glance and leisurely started a conversation with a
colleague, pretending not to be aware of the long line of vehicles
waiting for him to do his simple job, just look at their documents,
give a stamp and ask for the next one. But no, he used his full power
and let all of us wait so that he could enjoy the full benefit of his
monopoly. Well, the only thing one can do is wait and behave as the
man likes. So, when they were finished, he gave us the uninterested
glance and we got through in a wink. The first
kilometers immediately showed a difference with the countries we had
passed until now. There was rubble along the road, abandoned used
cars, unfinished buildings, unattended places of land. It was not
dramatic, but still obvious. It's small things, f.i. the toilet in
the bar where we stopped for a coffee was dilapidated.

Riding through
sometimes chaotic traffic we reached the bay of Kotor. It is a
butterfly-shaped bay, 40 k circumference, with a narrow,
funnel-shaped, opening to the sea. There is one road along the bay,
some villages and historic towns and then steep and rather high
mountains. All in all this makes a wonderful setting, much used for
calender illustrations and therefore classified World Heritage. We
could have skipped the bay and taken the ferry across the bay's
opening (maybe 100 m), but we wanted to enjoy the beauty of the bay.
Some kilometers further we found a campsite, well, something like it:
a small field with 2 caravans and 2 small tents directly on the
bayside, the outdoor-shower took its water from a plastic container
on top of the concrete 2-squat-toilet house.

This morning we stepped out of our tent
directly in the cool water and, to top the cake, when we were having
our breakfast a group of dolphins gave a show within 100 meters from
our tent. So for us the bay is OK.

Today we rode further round the bay
(flat road for once) and visited agreeable and historic Perast and
Kotor. The latter, like Dubrovnik but much smaller, completed
surrounded by high and thick walls and pressed against the steep and
rocky mountain behind it. Now we have pitched the tent on a small
campsite again, not bad but not as nice as the former one.

Today we decided not to continue via Skopje.
There are at least 2 rather high passes, and this combined with the
heat and the road conditions in Kosovo and Macedonia made us decide
that it's better to go more south. Now the plan is to pass via Tirana
and the Ohrid lake towards Thessaloniki.

We'll keep you posted, as long as there
are internet opportunities. This may become less. The last days we
regularly had difficulties becoming online. We don't know much about
the situation as to this in Albania, but the countries reputation
does not suggest the best.